At The World, I switch between editing and reporting, broadcasting and podcasting, in-depth series and tweeting. Words connect what I do. On a good day they are intelligible.

Since 2008, I have been running The World's language desk and hosting a podcast called The World in Words. Before that, I reported on politics and culture, contributing to series on global obesity, the mental scars of Hiroshima and others.

London is my home town, Cambridge, MA, my adopted hometown. I have also lived in Alaska, California, Denmark and Moldova.

Because of my job, I am sometimes mistakenly taken to be some kind of linguistic expert— by people who have not been exposed to my spelling or grammar. Despite that, I speak reasonable Danish, poor Chinese and atrocious French. I can read menus and follow soccer commentary in a few other languages.

Recent Stories

"Africans are incredible linguists," says Lori Thicke, founder of Translators Without Borders, which enlists Africans to translate everything from medication instructions to election materials into some of Africa's 1,000+ languages.

If you think you know the story of Snow White, or Hansel and Gretel or any of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales, think again. You probably know the cleaned-up, Disney versions. Author Adam Gidwitz returns to the blood and gore of the original stories in his retelling of them, while adding his own contemporary comments to help ease the tension for kids.

Back in the 17th century, there was a move to create rules for English, based on Latin. The man behind it, poet John Dryden, thought that Shakespeare and others had turned English into an unruly mess. Dryden failed to establish an English "academy" to impose rules. And that failure may have helped make English the worldwide language it is today.